Deuel said he is packing four people and a lot of gear into his Nissan Sentra for the 12-hour drive starting early Friday morning. All of the people in his carpool are strangers that he met via Zimride.

"Actually, we'll have a whole carpool train that we've put together on Zimride," Deuel said. "Cars from as far away as St. Louis will be joining us and heading up together."

Deuel said he asked for $60 round-trip from each riders, but one woman said she can pay only $35. That's fine, he said. "The Sentra gets really good gas mileage," he said.